Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Review
- Posted November 28th, 2007 at 12:57 EDT by
- 42 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 9.0
- Avg. user review score:
- 9.4
Summary
Classic adventure tale, combining beautifully rendered landscapes with pirates and treasure. Be whisked away to an undiscovered island where puzzle solving, fluid platforming, and loaded guns are used to unearth an ancient mystery. If you are looking for a solid title, Naughty Dog's Uncharted Drakes Fortune is no less than a masterpiece.
We like
- Some of the most beautiful environments and colorful characters yet on the PS3
- High quality voice acting and facial animations
We dislike
- Slight amount of screen tearing
- Gun battles could have been more diverse
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
Deep in the jungles of an undiscovered island lurks a legendary treasure. Known as El Dorado, this treasure has been sought by many, and now has fellow adventurer and lead character Nathan Drake out on a vigorous scavenger hunt to find it. Teamed up with a foxy blond reporter, Nathan must jump, swing, and climb the landscapes, finding new clues to the location of the mysterious gold statue. Developed by Naughty Dog Studios, Uncharted Drake's Fortune is what I'd call the bread and butter of the PlayStation 3, offering beautiful graphics, solid platforming, and movie quality storytelling.
To jump right in, the control scheme of game seems to follow what is easily becoming an industry standard for 3rd person action games. Players will use a single button to perform many different actions whether it’s taking cover, leaping to ledges, or activating doors; the layout is set up to simplify the feel of the character.
In Uncharted, this scheme is mapped to the triangle button, which is utilized to execute most of your interaction commands, including anything from kicking open rusty gates to jumping in vehicles. Then you have the square button, which handles your characters punches and combo attacks, leaving the circle as your cover and roll command and X for jumping. Moving on to the back buttons, L1 is used for aiming, R2 for reload, R” for fire, and L2 for manipulating the camera, allowing you to look around. You may also use the D-pad to switch through your weaponry and throw grenades.
It is rare to find a game that mixes third person shooter with platforming, and have both concepts actually harmonize in unison. More than often, I found it refreshing to finally have a title that allows the user to have a great experience in leaping ledges and scaling cliffs, but then shake it up with intense shotgun battles with treasure hungry pirates. The only other game that comes to mind that puts these two genres together so well is Tomb Raider. However, Lara Croft has nothing on Nathan Drake; Naughty Dog has done a great job to push the limits and offer something that is unique, standing out from others in the genre.
One notable annoyance in the game was when it came to jumping from one cling hole to another, as it was hard to tell where exactly Drake was jumping. Sometimes it shows his head turn, looking back, when making a backwards leap, or he’d look up if you were looking to scale upwards. However, sometimes it was hard to get him in this “tell” situation, leading to a blinded bound, occasionally resulting in death. Other than that, the jumping controls in Uncharted were perfect for it’s pace allowing you to not have to time your leaps. Just line it up and fly.
The cover system was easy to use as well. When near a wall or protruding chunk stone, simply press circle and Nathan will lean against the object for cover. Indeed, one of the key points in Uncharted is cover. Whether it’s stealthily sneaking upon an enemy for a neck break or taking a hail of fire and needing a place to restore your health, taking cover is a must. There really are not too many Rambo moments in the game. Most of the time if you rush up into a group of pirates, the end result is a red screen of “continue from last checkpoint.”
Earlier this year, hands on experiences lead some people to relate the shooting and action experiences in Uncharted Drake’s Fortune to something like Gears of War; and they were right. Now Uncharted doesn’t have all the chainsaws, exploding bodies, and curb stomps but the third person shooter controls are nearly the same, and you feel that same intensity when enemies come at you with shotguns and grenade launchers. Also the close up slow-motion combo sequences when fighting a pirate hand-to-hand help immerse you more into the visceral, kick ass action Uncharted provides.
Also worthy of mention are the SIXAXIS controls. Naughty Dog threw in the ability to hock grenades and balance across fallen trees, both using the SIXAXIS motion controller. In our experience, however, it didn’t add anything to ... (continued on next page)
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Comments
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leeman99
- 4:51am EST - November 28th, 2007
- 5
This why my ps3 takes pride and place above my xbox 360 and wii, theres something about ps3 games looking so good on my 42inch hd lcd honestly they do look much better than any of the other consoles games but drake is so special i can't wait to be in that tropical jungle kicking butt brilliant.
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TheBlackMamba
- 5:18am EST - November 28th, 2007
- 7
This game was AWESOME. Finished the entire game on normal level finding all 61 treasures, yes there are 61 treasures not 60. Can't wait until part 2.
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DeadOnArrival06
- 6:17am EST - November 28th, 2007
- 8
This was an amazing game. I hope it's one of the PS3's best sellers.
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Mecha_Daddy
- 10:01am EST - November 28th, 2007
- 11
Very good game, accurate review. This one was close to perfect, just not quite.
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Hyourinmaru
- 10:19am EST - November 28th, 2007
- 12
i downloaded teh demo the graphics are just HOT I mean liek literally 1 of teh BEST graphics I ever seen but teh game play is just not god enough like I had a shotgun n it took me 2 blows to keep some1 n i was liek 1 feet apart and the AK 47 was just retraded soo weak the pistols >.> unless u get a headshot it'll ake u like 4 shots to kill some1
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bloodwarg
- 11:42am EST - November 28th, 2007
- 14
played demo and pretty good but endless amount of enemies makes it frustrating as it makes it unrealistic i mean if how many mercenaries are there on this supposed !!secret!! island where theres the !!secret!! buried treasure.
i gonna get fm 08 on psp then after that orange box in next few weeks
then ill get god of war for psp and a few ps3 games at christmas,, gonna get shivering isles on ps3 when it comes out on disc. anyone know when that out in europe.
i might get this. oh nearly forgot about meatl gear solid quite a few decent games out this christmas for both psp and ps3.
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plustheharm
- 1:28pm EST - November 28th, 2007
- 16
the review finally just came up eh? PSU what happened, you used to be one top of the things.....well at least most of the time I guess....
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marronthered
- 3:07pm EST - November 28th, 2007
- 20
i am hearing reports of this game being very short!! that seems to be the case with a lot of these next gen titles... cod4 etc. if oblivion can offer over 150hrs of gameplay why cant this?????
def gonna buy it tho - the demo is the most played on my ps3...lol
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